The commission on Presidential Debates was established in the late 1980s'.

Since that time TV debates have been a permanent part of every US election but the first one's date back even further.

Let's start with the campaign that put televised debates on the map 1960, Kennedy versus Nixon.

It was less about what they said in that debate and more about how they looked.

1) 谓语date back有误吧？date谓语应该改成dates吧？

2)  我不能理解的是这里为何使用了televised debates - 没有特指？为什么不是the televised debates？我感觉要特指。请教老师分析。

3）less about, more about 都是much about的比较级，表示程度，这里可以翻译成与其...还不如说...吗？ 如何用not so much...as或rather than（与其...还不如）改写呢？我不会改写，麻烦老师试着改写一下。

非常感谢！